Author: staff
Published on 20/05/2026 – 11:32 GMT+2•Updated 11:46 Long before he became one of the world’s best-known Latin American artists, Fernando Botero sold his first work for two packs of cigarettes. More than seven decades later, and almost three years after his death, that youthful watercolour is returning to the art market at an auction in Bogotá. The piece, entitled ‘La Plegaria’ and executed in 1949, is regarded as the first work Botero sold in his career and features in an auction organised by Bogotá Auctions on 21 May, which will also offer more than 120 works of modern and contemporary…
Following the detection of the drone in Lithuania, Vilnius International Airport was closed and officials in the Ignalina District Municipality instructed children in schools to take shelter. Lithuanian Prime Minister Inga Ruginienė was set to meet her National Security Commission on Wednesday to discuss drone incursions; a government spokesperson told LRT that she had been taken to a shelter in response to the air alert. In a letter obtained by POLITICO, a group of 15 Baltic MEPs from across the political spectrum on Wednesday asked Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU top diplomat Kaja Kallas to take action.…
Published on 20/05/2026 – 12:09 GMT+2 European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told EU lawmakers that the bloc must tear down remaining barriers in its internal market to compete in the current geopolitical climate. “We must finish what we started. We must remove the barriers that still persist in our internal market,” von der Leyen told MEPs gathered in plenary session on Wednesday. “We must make it much easier to scale up across Europe. This is the basic promise of the single market and it must be fulfilled.” Von der Leyen singled out the practice of so-called “gold plating”…
More than a decade of late-night history ends this week, with Stephen Colbert’s tenure as the host of the US show The Late Show coming to an end this Thursday. As a reminder, The Late Show has been CBS’s flagship late-night talk show for many years. It first aired in 1993 with David Letterman hosting. Colbert joined the show in 2015 and stood out for his wit, charm, and his hugely popular political monologues skewering the Trump administration. Colbert’s 11-year run ends on Thursday 21 May, and he’ll leave the late-night landscape significantly poorer. Here’s everything you need to know…
The big shots and the thinkers Burnham is no stranger to the Cabinet either. Two of his biggest supporters around Starmer’s top table are Miliband, the energy secretary, and Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander is “pally” with Burnham, too, as the friend quoted above put it. And Deputy Labour Leader Lucy Powell is another prominent champion in parliament. They all might hope to prosper if the mayor does make it to Downing Street. More immediately, Powell is taking on the key by-election job of trying to rally members and volunteers on the campaign. She played a similar…
Published on 20/05/2026 – 11:13 GMT+2 The US is due to announce major cuts to the number of troops available to Europe in the event of an invasion or war. The decision comes as part of pre-planned changes to the US force posture in Europe and was initially signalled at the start of Trump administration in line with the priorities of Washington’s “America First” doctrine. The US currently has around 76,000 troops across NATO territory, the largest volume since the Cold War, due to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The announcement due on Friday will mainly concentrate…
By Chaima Chihi & Euronews Arabic Published on 20/05/2026 – 10:08 GMT+2•Updated 10:11 A Libyan appeals court has acquitted 31 former officials of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s regime on charges of suppressing protesters during the 2011 revolution, bringing to a close a case that began in 2014 and originally doled out widely criticised death sentences three years later. The verdict on Monday covers charges of ordering and carrying out the violent suppression of demonstrators during the 2011 uprising that ended Gaddafi’s 42-year rule. The defendants collectively faced 37 criminal charges, including killing unarmed protesters, inciting civil war, looting, destruction and genocide. The defendants acquitted…
By Tokunbo Salako with AP Published on 20/05/2026 – 8:29 GMT+2 Taiwanese author Yáng Shuāng-zǐ and translator Lin King have won the International Booker Prize for “Taiwan Travelogue,” a historical romance set in Japan-occupied Taiwan in the 1930s. It is the first novel written in Mandarin Chinese to win the prestigious award for fiction translated into English. The book purports to be a travel memoir by a Japanese novelist on a culinary tour of Taiwan and charts the fictional writer’s complex relationship with her local interpreter. British novelist Natasha Brown, who chaired the judging panel, called it a “captivating, wryly sophisticated” book that…
But NGOs say that these hubs risk becoming lawless offshore detention centers. The lack of detail on where the hubs will be placed and who will monitor them “risks leaving the door open to abuses of power, human rights violations, and even more disorder at Europe’s borders,” said Imogen Sudbery, executive director of the NGO International Rescue Committee Belgium. The planned reforms have divided the European Parliament, with the center-right European People’s Party (EPP) securing the Parliament’s negotiating position ahead of the talks with the support of right-wing groups rather than its traditional centrist partners. There was further outrage when…
The countdown has begun: artist JR has taken over the Pont Neuf. By 6 June, Paris’s oldest bridge will have been turned into a cavern. La Caverne du Pont Neuf (source in French)is the name of his monumental work: 120 metres long, 20 metres wide and up to 18 metres high. For the artist, the aim is to “juxtapose the raw and the wild” and to create “a dialogue between past and present”. Artist JR, creator of the projectArtist JR, creator of the project Some Parisians are thrilled; others rather less so. “I like it when Paris is alive, and…